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Transiberico: Portuguese Rally started with the scrutineering

With plenty of great cars and many top drivers the 2007 Transiberico Rally started today with the scrutineering and official press conference at the "Autodromo de Estoril" in Portugal. Before the press conference of the rally, there was another event for the representatives of the press: the presentation of the new McRae Enduro Rallycar and the Pirelli McRae Enduro Trofeo planned to be launched in 2008.

More about the new car and racing series you can read more in the following articles:

"Top drivers of the world will be at the start tomorrow" said Carlos Barbosa, president of Automóvel Club de Portugal and organiser this year´s Transiberico Rally. "It will be difficult for the drivers this year, we have made a lot of changes to the route" added José Megre, chief of the organising committee and a real legend of the cross-country rally sport. "Leg 2 and leg 4 will be completely new, so we expect a gruelling fight till the end of the race."

"The last Dakar is already, the next is still far away", said Luc Alphand (Mitsubishi), "but for us it’s always a pleasure to race here. We did some testing to find the right setup for the rally but there are many good drivers here."

"I would like to win here", said Carlos Sainz (Volkswagen), "like everybody else sitting here", he added looking around to his rivals. "I am glad to meet an old friend here, it will be nice to compete with Colin McRae again. On our car there are no major changes since the Dakar."

Colin McRae (Nissan Overdrive) makes his return to the cross-country rally after a long absence. "In fact I met Gregoire de Mevius accidentally. He asked me if I would drive his car and I said yes" said the British rally legend. "Overdrive is a small and quite new team but the atmosphere is very professional and I love to work with them. I am really happy to be here."

Last year’s runner-up, Joan "Nani" Roma (Mitsubishi) seems to wait for the start tomorrow eagerly. "I love this rally! Last year I lost the rally in the last twenty kilometres, we fought with Giniel de Villiers until the last moment", said the Catalan. "Now I feel myself and the car ready for the race and I am looking forward the prologue tomorrow."

Tomorrow the crews are to complete a Super Special of about 7 kilometres near the historic village of Mafra. The real challenge starts on Fridays with the first long special ending in the city of Badajoz in Spain.